Tuesday, 7 July 2015

When Did Carmen Ortiz Become an Islamic Religious Authority?

Related to the post immediately preceding this, from Middle East Forum, again focussing on the fact that Islamic State has a lot about it which is Islam:

Nevertheless, it [saying Islamic State has "nothing to do with Islam"] is very troubling and very dangerous, for two reasons. Most obviously, it is a refusal to accept reality – namely, that these crimes are very much about Islam and represent an ideology which, though it is not shared by all Muslims and many Muslims oppose it, is at least an offshoot of Islam which many Muslims do believe authentically represents their faith. If you can't correctly identify who or what you are fighting, you can't defeat it, to paraphrase former US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

More importantly, it is not the business of the United States government to decide what is "true" religion (any religion) and what is heresy. That is the foundation of the (non-) Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. By arrogating to themselves the right to determine what is authentic Islam, federal officials are making themselves religious authorities, and dangerously eroding the separation between church (mosque?) and state.

"...it is the duty of those who have accepted Islam to strive unceasingly to convert or subjugate those who have not. This obligation is without limit of time or space. It must continue until the whole world has either accepted the Islamic faith or submitted to the power of the Islamic state."

-- Bernard Lewis, renowned historian of Islam and the Middle East, in The Political Language of Islam, p72-3.

In other words:

"Islam is unique among religions of the world in having a developed doctrine, theology and legal system that mandates warfare against unbelievers."